Secrets exposed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden have become obstacles to the Obama administration‘s efforts to counter the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Members of the Islamist extremist group, like other terrorist enemies of the United States, have used that information to cover their tracks and avoid detection.
“These groups are adapting their tactics to overcome our defenses and avoid our intelligence collection,” Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, explained in a Sept. 3 speech. “Terrorist groups are looking for simpler, smaller-scale attacks that are easier to pull off, such as the al Shabab attack last year at the Westgate mall in Nairobi,” he said.
Changes in how terrorists behave based on Snowden’s leaks “is a problem for us in many areas where we have limited human collection and depend on intercepted communications to identify and disrupt plots,” Olsen said. They are using encryption and more secure communications platforms or are skipping electronic communications completely, he said.
Snowden’s revelations also have left many Americans and key U.S. allies skeptical of the need for the massive data-collection programs whose details he leaked, and caused political problems for them at a crucial time when ISIS was enjoying explosive growth.
One of those allies is Germany, where the chief public prosecutor has started an investigation into Snowden’s allegation that the NSA spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. It’s one of many reports that have angered Germans and embarrassed Merkel at a time when Obama is courting her to help against the terrorists.
A June analysis by Der Spiegel of documents leaked by Snowden indicated that the NSA’s surveillance architecture in Germany, the largest in Europe, had been used to help identify terrorist targets for U.S. strikes.
Though U.S. lawmakers say that capacity is needed now more than ever, such spying is illegal in Germany and thus poses a political problem for its government as a potential member of an anti-ISIS coalition.
“We’ve got to rebuild our trust,” Rep. Robert Pittenger told the Washington Examiner. “Europe is critical to this entire battle. They are important partners.”
The North Carolina Republican, chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, has organized meetings Sept. 17-19 in Washington with some 60 parliamentarians from 24 European countries to “clear the air” with intelligence professionals and congressional leaders.
“They want this to be an opportunity for the Europeans to come in and ask the tough questions,” Pittenger spokesman Jamie Bowers said.
Pittenger, who traveled to Europe in February to begin trying to repair intelligence ties with Europe, sees the effort as a parallel to those by Congress and the Obama administration to restructure the NSA’s activities and reassure Americans that the agency will not spy on them.
“Their whole perspective is clearly tainted. There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” he said.
